Jeff Bernstein

Music The teaser starts as if with Richard Strauss, and ends as if with Penderecki . . . sound familiar, friends?

9. One day a messenger came running up to the monastery door and shouted out the coming of enemy raiders from afar. Look! See the dust rising on the horizon! They’re coming on horseback! The monks gathered to decide the matter. Moses was now seventy-five years old and the elder of the monastery. He said he wasn’t going anywhere. “Those who wish to flee should go now,” he said. “Those who wish to stay, I will stay with you.” Seven monks elected to stay behind with Moses, who reportedly spoke out : “Live by the sword, die by the sword”—was he remembering his nighttime Nile swim? This saint’s story ends in a grand manner. Protecting those entrusted to his care, the agèd Moses fended off the foe the best he could until he fell in death. After a lifetime of patient suffering, he left behind him many disciples. END. 18 June – 29 June 2025

8. There is something in Moses’ legend, a story that shouldn’t be left out of this account of his life. It happened one night that four thieves entered the monastery, and they made the bad choice of coming up to Moses’ door. As they entered in oh so quietly, looking for something to steal, moonlight streaming through the window illuminated a tremendous figure looming before them, who was the strongest man any of the four of them would ever see. Moses stood before this gang of cutthroats who would kill him if they could, to escape. “Please stop,” he said; but this fell on deaf ears, so the first man was spinning around fast without feeling Moses even take his arm; the second man threw a punch, and Moses caught his fist in mid-air and squeezed the man down to his knees; meanwhile the third man brought a chair down onto Moses’ head, the wood shattered into bits but Moses felt nothing, and the third man was pushed down to the floor. By the time that the fourth man had fully brought out his blade, Moses had it in his own hands, and flung it at his feet, along with the fourth man. So all the Monks had gathered in the monastery church, and Moses came in, bringing the four thieves, each tied up one to another with rope, and dragged in, as they had fainted in terror. The monks were astonished at the following : there was not a single violent mark on any of the men. And Moses said : “What shall I do? For I will not hurt them.” tbc

7. “You have travelled far to see me, esteemed keepers of the faith, to learn my thinking, which I would not lightly reveal to you, for there are dangers in too much talking. But your sincerity of constant prayer, of reverence for what you seek to know, are a strong persuader to give me tongue and speak of the goal and end of all things. A bowman who shoots an arrow without a target before him cannot hit the mark.” tbc

6. Sometimes under starlight Moses went down the mountain hauling eight buckets with him on a pole he balanced on his shoulders; it was quite a laborious descent at the best of times, but Moses made it to level desert, and fetched rainwater from the ancient cisterns cut into rock. Moses hiked back up with the fresh water and in the middle of the night he went among the monks, going from cell to cell and pouring before each door a pitcher brimming with drink from thirty miles out. This Moses did in respectful quiet for his friends at heart and in the spirit. tbc [ On the spur of the moment Photograph Botros Saied Egypt 2018 / Lazarists monastery No1 Photograph Christos Simatos Greece 2017 ]

OBAA vibe (?) in Scrooby's hands? Fits magazine 3525 17th Street Apt. 16 San Francisco February 1971

5. Moses the Black had a colossal strength, and his surplus of energy was now cooped up inside a staid monastery; his temperament could bring down the walls to a heap of rough stone if he willed it; so what about the even-tempered monks? What happened surprised the religious men : they put a book in his hand, and Moses responded favourably—he read it; and in the reading of it he stayed calm, placid and gentle and agreeable for the duration of his concentration. Then he would push people around a bit, but soon the holy words won him over, there in the mountaintop monastery, a new faith stimulated his being into action—a long action of thinking. And yet there was a problem from the start : his undifferentiated energy. There was no way Moses was going to sit reading for too long a time, not at first, not with a body full of active rage above and beyond the natural strength of youth. How did Moses better himself? He learned how to control his energy. Plunged into indefatigable studies, Moses subsisted on little bread for weeks, which kept him physically weak. When he ate cooked food and his physical strength returned, he punished his body with long labour such as digging holes then filling them in until Moses was ready to read again. It’s said Moses prayed fifty times daily. He always stood up when he read and prayed, so most of the time he was on his feet, “without bending his knees” —ancient sources praise Moses in this—“or closing his eyes”. Over time he taught himself to stay still for entire days and nights at a time; and after many years he would himself take Holy Orders and become a Monk. His skillful concentration would serve him for the rest of his life; he read many books, and his thinking took on the vitality of the colossal strength of his body. tbc

4. Moses thought it best to beat a retreat after the murder, for the Shepherd’s flocks were the property of a wealthy man with connections. The rustler had failed to consider this beforehand, so there went his perfect plan. Now he was on the run, the murdering thief of four full-grown rams, for one of his fellow thugs had sold him out. Moses crossed desert—bleak terrain and drear, and came to a road paved by the Romans and he crossed a border into Jordan and the rose-red rocks of city Petra; and came to a mountain whose heights all round were hard to access; but he found a way to the top, where a Monastery stood, a perfect spot for someone to hide out until all things could be made good again. tbc [ Fallen Statue of Ramses II Photograph Barry Iverson Egypt 1999 / Nestorian Church Photograph Barry Iverson Egypt 1988 / Palazzo di Colori Photograph Cade Turner Australia 2011 ]

3. It was on a path in the woods, at night, and it was hard to see in the branches; five men, Moses among them, their leader, jumped from the trees onto a Wayfarer of the night, and tore at him, his clothing, the book in a pouch by his waist, all else; but the sounds of barking dogs coming ever closer tore them away from their evil; and they tossed all his items at the man on the dirt and made for the trees, fleeing, not the first time; as they disappeared some looked back and saw a Shepherd they knew (recognised at least) approach with his dogs; he helped the Wayfarer back to his feet. So Moses and his men were sneaking through the long grass by the side of the Nile, and when they thought it safe to speak, Moses addressed his gang, a motley bunch of sordid filth, and asked them, “Who was the man with the dogs?” And those who had recognised the Shepherd spoke up. Moses asked, “Where can I find him?” The next night Moses returned to the side of the Nile, put a blade between his teeth, descended the slope onto a rocky beach and entered the water of the river. A mile ahead, across the placid current of fresh water, Moses could see the fires of the Shepherd burning by his flock. Four hundred yards, Moses struggled to breathe. He’d been using a rudimentary crawl and now he was gassed. He looked up at the stars, floating there in the midst of the current, seeing the Bear rambling up the sky, the Swan with its wings outstretched, soaring high, and Moses refused to quit. He began to swim, this time with frogs and toads in mind. Times past he’d seen them swimming in the river, taking it slow, but continuously. Moses swam a breaststroke with scissor kick, froglike, and paced himself, and the palm trees and the fires on the opposite bank came ever closer as he kept his stroke, and he crossed the Nile under the stars. Now the Shepherd heard the nightbirds whistle by the riverside, but he thought nothing of it until he felt his throat was cut. Then when his dogs ran over from watching the flocks, barking out a bloody murder, their Master fell in a heap at Moses’ feet, and the dogs ran off. Moses cut the throats of four rams, tied them together with rope, and towed the beasts behind him as he swam back to the other side, no easy thing, for the rams got waterlogged and heavy. When Moses returned to the other side he went fifty miles to reach his gang; his plan had been a mighty diversion. tbc

2. “I had to be called bad, a criminal, so worse criminals can call themselves good. What a racket is this world!—just bullies and cowards—and I won’t be a coward but will smash whatever stands in my way if I desire it. Hold on, Moses— what way? Where am I going? I’m homeless, stateless, wandering without a penny in the world and no prospect to get any. Look around here at this world of people! Their contentment is so near to me, but what they have I do not have; even worse, I have no idea how to make my way in the world so that I’ll get for myself a house and family. I’m an outcast. But if this world wants me that, I’ll be that. If no one helps me, I will help myself, and the more I help myself, the stronger I become in body and mind, and then I shall bully the cowards around me in a way that they will never forget! If I have to resort to thievery to survive because the world ignores me and hasn’t a care if I live or die, then why am I solely responsible for the decisions to do what I do? People don’t help me, so I will help them. Let me be blamed and called the criminal. I will be kind if they are kind to me, but if they want me cruel, that’s what I’ll be.” tbc

1. The following is of Moses the Black. At the first we meet him as a child slave in the household of an Official in long-lived Egypt. The child’s good looks brought him into the house at an early age, and efforts were made to give him breeding, as the mistress of the household fancied the boy would be an excellent reader to her of the many books in their library. This, though the boy as yet knew not a word. So the husband had Moses given letters to please his wife, and wouldn’t you know it but his wife was right, the boy read quite well, and gave to the tales in his recital a charm that brought one into the action and feel fine feelings; the boy was a find. Handsome, articulate—but now we must introduce a problem : his thievery. The wealthy house was full of knackery, ebony and ivory statuettes of animals and gods and suchlike things, and it happened that sooner or later this thing and that thing appeared in his room where the housemaidens found them in plain sight. One time when asked about his pilfering the boy Moses answered the housemaiden, “It was very beautiful, as you are, with that lock of hair curling by your ear that makes it hard for me to concentrate; so, just as I now enjoy the sweetness of your presence, and wish to draw it out, as life is best when drunken to the lees, so I brought this artwork into my room.” At this the maid hardly knew what to say, for the thieving youth’s eyes were beautiful, his eyeliner applied quite prettily. This boy Moses—no one taught him to steal. Somehow the boy already came to feel contrary and entitled and above things, revolting against things naturally, just as birds build nests without instruction. Naïve confidence ends badly as a rule; but, God help him, Destiny was on his side —apparently; had to be, for later Moses enjoyed an honourable death. As the boy grew up he filled out nicely. In and out of the house no maid resisted his advances; and Moses grew into a physique that no one had ever seen; epithets appealing to Greek heroes like Achilles are required to describe his powerful and statuesque presence. His strength was such that no man in the house would tangle with him if he could help it. So Moses was a law until himself in the wealthy home of the Official of Egypt, who thought the best of Moses, for bad news was never willingly brought to the Official, and Moses got away with murder (so to speak) until the day he entered into the bed of his wife. It’s said she was the most beautiful woman in the region, and Moses pleased her well. So the Official came to know of it, and the following, or something like it, Moses spoke from beside the bed : “Master! I honour the beauty of this woman in the way she demanded to be pleased. To honour her is to honour you, sir, honour your good fortune and discernment in people, as you raised me up from low, from the goodness of your heart and Reason. Now you see me honouring you in this way, in making your wife happy, and all the house is thereby a happy one, and you prosper. So please do not think too finely of this. Know, sir, that I contribute to your bliss.” Hard to believe he stayed alive after this. But Moses survived intact with his life and not only that, he was given his freedom—the easiest way to proceed, the Official reckoned, to keep things quiet. The mistress sneered at Moses when he left; she had wanted him to kill her husband. She told him he would suffer grievously far from the house where he had always lived. tbc

". . . What?" Valley Girl (1983)

Perhaps I should not introduce myself at the outset; I may fill you with fear. I tend to bring out the worst in people. You’ve met me previously in these parts but I’ve many faces, many voices, so you may not recognize the Devil speaking to you now. You ask yourself now, does he seek a friend, or to win a soul? Let me tell you something unusual : sometimes I’m motivated to better myself. What? Should the Devil be wholly without virtue? If speaking now contributes something good, then time is not so bad, so God-haunted, full of death. I don’t know if I can die. You didn’t know that about me, did you? Maybe only Father is eternal. It burns me up inside, this not knowing. Well, let me tell you a story. We’ll learn things—we’ll think outside the box, as you say. I want to tell you a cheerful tale. The Devil is not allowed to do this? I’m barred from performing acts of charity? Between you and me, I do them every day; (there is satisfaction in proving people wrong). Come, stay awhile, listen to my tale. If I speak softly come a little closer. I promise (swear to God) I won’t hurt you. tbc

[ Industrial II Photograph Jgc Braticius United Kingdom 2019 / Colors of time 1 Photograph Thomas Haensgen Germany 2023 / Perfect Love I Photograph Kleoniki Vanos South Africa 2019 / Agave Plant Flower Photograph Rosa Frei Morocco 2024 / Golden Sunset Photograph Bruce Peebles Australia 2022 ]

S O O N Πολλοὺς δὲ κακουργήσας, καὶ πολλοὺς φόνους τολμήσας, ἐκ περιπετείας τινὸς τὸν μοναδικὸν μετῆλθε βίον, καὶ ἀθρόον εἰς ἀρετὴν φιλοσοφίας ἐπέδωκεν. Sozomeni ecclesiastica historia VI.29. After a life of doing many bad things, including many acts of murder, through a sudden awakening he gave his life to total monastic devotion, and won distinction in the art of philosophy. [ ladder 1 Photograph Curtis Rhodes United States 2022 / Old Antique Stairway Photograph Igor Stevanovic Serbia 2009 / #0222_color Photograph Botros Saied Egypt 2018 ]

JOY-SPOT : a magnificent echo of the 1930s Roman Holiday (1953) Stars in her eyes. ¶ Seeing Audrey Hepburn cry is like watching a kitten in pain.

Variety, 14 June 2025 : "Brian Wilson's Genius" by Owen Gleiberman For hundreds of years music has been used as the bridge to God, the conduit to religious feeling, the majestic tool designed to give us access to those higher feelings. Please substitute, in the extract above by O.G., the word music with the word Art. It’s the sound that hits your joy-spot and, in doing so, hits your faith-spot, revealing the hidden majesty of what life is. Now we reach the point of this post : Art as an effort of exposing glimmers of a hidden. The God-call is a Rousing to action. * ☞ Art is the most powerful therapeutic tool available, but the spectator has to make it happen; or most everything remains hidden. ☞ We follow the call, we move beyond the ecstasy at the outset; and the mind begins to work; and, all being well after an effort of thinking, life changes for the better.

t h e o d o r a Another time she went into the town, and upon her return one night, a wench came to her and said, “Sleep with me this night.” Theodora refused. Then the wench went to another that lay in the hostel. When her belly began to swell, she said, “It was the monk who had lain beside me.” Then when the child was born it was sent to Theodorus at the monastery; and the abbot blamed Theodorus sore, who meekly asked if he might be forgiven. But he was cast out of the monastery, and for seven years she nourished the child with the milk of the beasts of the wild. Early in this time her dog came to her, and he watched over her and the child. Theodora fed him and showed affection, although by now she knew what he had done. One night a lion came out of the dark and the dog stood its ground. It was the Devil come to her in the likeness of a beast, and the dog ran off, never seen again, but Theodora stood between the Devil and the child, and the Devil said to her : “I should eat and swallow you whole, strumpet!” And she said her prayers. Then the lion wilted down to nothing, for the Devil didn’t care, and as the lion vanished Theodora made the sign of the cross. When seven years had passed in the wild away from the monastery, the abbot, weighing the patience of Theodorus, took her again into the monastery, with the child; and so Theodora cared for the child for years in her cell. Hugging and kissing the child one day, she said, “My sweet son, the time of my death comes; I leave and must entrust you to God.” Theodora gave the child advice, moral and religious, and then she died, which the child seeing, began to weep. Then when the abbot and all the others entered in and uncovered Theodorus, they found that she was a woman. The story goes that the Angel of God led the abbot to the husband, who said, “My wife is dead; I must go and see her.” And the abbot took up and set the husband on his horse, and together they came to the monastery, and with reverence and solemnity they buried her. The husband moved into the cell of his wife and abode therein until he died, watching over the child. When the abbot of the monastery died, the child was elected with one voice to be abbot. He did many good works in his lifetime for God. Then let us pray to holy saint Theodora. Amen. END. 7 June – 12 June 2025.

meet the artist "Tiny Paws" original canvas commission from Loki, 02/06/25.

t h e o d o r a 5 After certain years the abbot called on brother Theodorus to guide the cart into town to gather up provisions. It was there where she met with her old dog. He frisked through a flowerbed, leaving tracks in the soil, and came to lick her hand; and her husband approached, and stepped beside her, and saw her, but knew nothing of her; and petting their dog he began to speak and to seek out guidance for his troubles. “Brother, I love my wife but she has left me, she has gone away with another man, perhaps.” “Perhaps she needs to be alone; she’ll return when she has found forgiveness.” The story goes that she told her husband he would have a dream that night that revealed the truth—this would be her first miracle. During the dream their dog ran off from home, but there will be no need to look for him. tbc

t h e o d o r a 4 At dawn the sky was flooded with sunlight and dewy flowers glistered, and the sound came round of animals stirring awake (for those with ears to hear such gentle noise), and Theodora’s bare feet trod the stones outside the town as she ventured away from everything she knew, in search of truth, seeking something that would soothe her sad heart. At length, then, there appeared a nunnery before her. She rapped her fist on the door. The door opened on its creaking hinges and Theodora was guided inside to Mother Superior, to whom she asked : Does God see in the night as in the day? And the abbess answered Theodora : Nothing may be hid from God, for God sees and knows all that is done in what hour it happens night or day. Theodora wept violently, and asked for the Book for guidance, and opened to a passage that read Quod scripsi scripsi—What is done, is done; and then she knew that she was lost. And a barking sound came through the window. It was her husband, whom their dog had led to her so that she might be brought back home, his dear wife. And so she went home with him. And on a day when her husband was out, she cut her hair, and put on his clothing, and this time Theodora journeyed farther, a stony xviii miles in distance to a monastery of monks. She slept outside until they recognised the strength of her faith. Then they demanded her name and she said her name was Theodorus, and asked to be received among the monks. And so she was received, for the men thought her a man, and she maintained this fiction, and meekly she did all the offices, and her service was acceptable to all. Meanwhile her husband wept for sorrow, for she was gone; and a number of years passed. tb

t h e o d o r a 3 [ Safa 4 Photograph Jerry Cargill United States 2015 ] SCROOBY. May this sunny birdsong soothe our dark thought. See Theodora in the marketplace, buying food for two; ah, she bursts into tears. DEVIL. A gentleman addresses himself to her. GENTLEMAN. Dear lady—? THEODORA. Nothing! SCROOBY. It was a stranger who had spoken out; nothing special about his appearance; we’ll have occasion to return to him. DEVIL. A temporary bridegroom might assist, and the lover yield her husband a son; if she were wise she’d give herself to me. SCROOBY. Let us overhear her prayers in church. THEODORA. I weep these tears for I have no child of my own. I lost my child long ago, and God has given no other to us. I go to church, and pray, and follow the law, and am faithful to my husband, but this reward is denied me. Why women, why men, if not to bring babies into the world? DEVIL. Humn. THEODORA. What must I sacrifice to have this joy? DEVIL. Everything. GOD. Who said you can come in here? DEVIL. The sound of unanswered prayers relaxes me. GOD. Careful. Without me you are a weakling. SCROOBY. Now let us follow Theodora home. Her loving husband is a wealthy man, and is happy to give her all she asks. SCROOBY. That night she quietly opened the door of the house and slipped into the forest, where she found an old woman long in lore; Theodora had come here once before, to quicken a passion in her husband. This time she’d find a herb to take herself. ENCHAUNTERESSE. Whatever is done in daylight, God sees and knows, but what is done under sundown and in the dark, God knows nothing of that. SCROOBY. And Theodora chose to be deceived. What happened next? The Devil knows. She went back to the marketplace the following day, and waited; and then the day after that; until she met the gentleman again. DEVIL. Mention the scent of flowers in the air. SCROOBY. They spoke, and the next thing she knew (so she would tell herself later) she was lying in his bedchamber. DEVIL. She debased herself beyond all expectations or belief. SCROOBY. When Theodora returned to herself, she wept bitterly, and pulled at her hair, and said, “Alas! Woe! I have lost my soul!” Her husband found his wife so sorrowing and desolate, and desired to know the cause, so he could comfort his beloved; but she would receive no consolation. tbc

SUDDEN MAXIMUM DISTANCE After the Rehearsal (1984)

t h e o d o r a 2 [ Bluer than velvet Photograph Alfonso Batalla Spain 2016 ] DEVIL. How might Theodora be swept away? It would be wrong to seek out a lover experienced in seduction of wives; for if she is truly pious and chaste (how dull!) then romancing her will fail. How might her body lead her into Hell? Here’s the house she and her husband live in. I happen to know there is a baby germinating in Theodora’s womb. How convenient for us. It’s past midnight. Shall we go inside? We’re already in and going up the stairs, gently enough so that I make no riser groan; a growl comes out of the darkness from the stairhead, a dog. I will have you know the Devil and dogs have always been well-friendly. I reach out my hand and the dog licks it. In bed the husband sleeps beside his wife, too weak to protect her, as if he could, from me, who stands over Theodora. Look! Such a lovely, graceful young woman. She loves the sky, flowers, animals, books; and in her heart she longs to be a mother. I’m about to do something horrible, so look away, all cowardly Readers! See me reach up inside her with my arm. I feel the fetus wriggling in my grip. What would you have me do, supreme Lord God? I shut my fist and squeeze it to a pulp, then I fling the dead tissue to the dog. Now our dear Theodora is awake; music to my ears are her screams of pain. SCROOBY. Now let’s move forward ten years. How is she, Theodora, who gives this play its name? tbc